memoirs of john quincy adams. 793 



December 6, 1844. 



Mr. Robert Owen came again this morning, and mesmer- 

 ized me for the space of an hour and a halfwith his luna- 

 cies about a new organization of society under the auspices 

 of the two most powerful nations on the face of the globe — 

 Great Britain on the Eastern and the United States on the 

 Western Hemisphere. The materials, he says, are abund- 

 ant, and the arrangements are all of simple and easy execu- 

 tion, lie has prepared a plan in which all the details are 

 set forth with the minutest accuracy. It is now in the 

 hands of Mr. Packenham, but he will ask him to return it, 

 and will communicate it to me for my examination. It is a 

 plan for universal education, for which the Smithsonian 

 fund may provide the means without interfering at all with 

 my views. After the establishment of the system, there 

 will be no war, and no such thing as poverty. Universal 

 competency will be the lot of all mankind, and want will be 

 unknown. 



All this I had heard twenty-five years ago, and the hum- 

 bug is too stale. 



January 15, 1845. 



Mr. Woodbury's discourse last evening was of about two 

 hours' duration, delivered with great rapidity, replete with 

 various and minute details of modern and especially Amer- 

 ican improvements in the arts and sciences, physical, moral, 

 political, and intellectual, tinged throughout with the worm- 

 wood of Democracy, like ocean brine boiled down to freshen 

 it, with a mawkish tang of the salt remaining in the taste. 

 It was a defence of our national character against the re- 

 proach of neglecting the progress of science. He drew 

 from the nature of our Democratic Government the infer- 

 ence that scientific improvement must be the result of indi- 

 vidual exertion and private enterprise, and enumerated a 

 great multitude of American inventions, from Fulton's 

 steamers and Whitney's cotton-gin to the Western Railroad, 

 the Fairrnount Water Works at Philadelphia, and the 

 Croton Aqueduct at New York. 



Then he touched lightly upon the promotion of science 

 which the Government has actually patronized — the survey 

 of the coast, the astronomical observatory, and the explor- 

 ing expedition. He made out, on the whole, a very good 

 case, and closed with a liberal exhortation to Congress to 

 foster science within the constitutional limitations, and to 

 interweave together the capabilities of the National Institute 

 and the Smithsonian fund. Immediately after he closed, 



